


Alive and Well

by DeCarabas



Series: Fugitives Together [35]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Gen, Post-Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:24:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5599609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeCarabas/pseuds/DeCarabas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A moment's pause shortly after Kirkwall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alive and Well

A curve in the mountain path finally, blessedly took them downhill again, skirting along the side of the mountain where there was a break in the trees. The reflection of the moon off the lake far below wasn’t much different than the view from the cliffs of the Wounded Coast, all those times Anders went to gather night-blooming herbs. But his steps slowed, and he stopped, and the part of him that he still thought of as Justice looked out over the lake. The surface of the water was so perfectly motionless that he could make out the reflection of the stars, lights floating far below him.

 _This is not a sight that should be taken for granted_.

Justice had said that to Anders more than once, before Kirkwall, before everything. Anders could almost hear his voice.

Sitting side by side on a pier in Amaranthine, surrounded by the reek of brine and seaweed, Justice had watched a school of little fish weave around the wooden poles of the docks. And he'd wondered at the patterns of lights and shadow, the weight of the water, the texture of the wood under his palms—the infinite, intoxicating complexity and richness of detail of the physical world.

The Warden-Commander and the others had gone on ahead, and Anders had stayed with Justice and watched the fish, basking in the sunlight on his skin and the impossibly wide expanse of open water and open sky spread out before him, free of stone tower walls.

Justice’s mental tone faded from his mind now, but Anders still didn’t move. He just closed his eyes, shutting out the view of the lake and the lights reflected on the water, and he put a hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh in relief. If he started, he wasn’t sure he could stop.

He’d thought that side of Justice was gone, that fascination for the beauty of the world; as long gone as the newly-escaped apprentice with his mud-stained slippers and his bloody blisters and his joy in it all.

He took a deep breath, and then another one. And it felt like he’d found a way out of another prison that should have been inescapable.


End file.
